Validation of the Brief Solastalgia Scale (BSS-Br): Psychometric evidence of environmental distress in the Brazilian population

Summary

This study translated, culturally adapted, and validated a Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Solastalgia Scale (BSS-Br), a measure of the place-based distress caused by environmental change. It ran in two phases: forward–backward translation with expert review and cognitive debriefing (n = 12), then psychometric validation in a large online sample of 1,752 Brazilian adults, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, item response theory (a graded response model), and measurement invariance testing. The BSS-Br showed a single underlying dimension with good internal consistency and high item discrimination, and its scores held equivalent meaning across age, region, education, and other sociodemographic groups. Solastalgia scores were higher among people reporting more depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7) symptoms and lower among those with greater wellbeing (WHO-5), supporting convergent validity. It is the first validated Portuguese-language solastalgia instrument, and the first in a major Global South country, extending environmental-distress measurement beyond Anglophone, high-income settings.